Flex Nibs

Flex Nibs

Vintage Pen Montblanc 149 Celluloid This vintage pen is a 1955 Meisterstück 149 piston-filler in Celluloid. This was an early production model, while Montblanc pens were still being hand made by master machinists (prior to the introduction of injection molded ‘Precious Resin’). Outer two cap bands are sterling silver, otherwise gold-filled trim. Visualated barrel window with perfect vertical lines. Three-tone 18C nib, rarer than 14C. Even rarer is that this one is medium, FLEXIBLE. Near …

The fine flexible nib on my pen keeps catching the paper when I’m writing, and then ink splatters everywhere. Sometimes the tines get misaligned. What am I doing wrong? With nibs that accommodate pressure, make sure you’re only applying light pressure on the downstroke, and no pressure on the upstroke. It’s usually pressure on the upstroke that causes fine, and other, nibs to get caught. This can cause ink splattering when the tines are caught …

I was writing quotes with pens that I already have but I get asked about flex nibs all the time, and having bought a few of my favorite vintage flex pens from Go Pens here, I thought I’d highlight some gorgeous pens with flex nibs for those of you who might want to snap one up. If I don’t first. I have copied Gary and Myrna’s red box system to highlight the pen in question …

My Swan fountain pen has a weird black rod on top of the nib. What is that? Mabie Todd pens sometimes have an under over feed – in addition to the feed that the nib sits on, there is a feed on top to guarantee ink flow as the nib is flexed. There were also Gold top feeds – a thin gold channel on top of the nib, which served the same purpose, by moving …

I love this quote. I saw it while reading a fountain pen book and thought it was great, and very true. I don’t know what my dream nib is, because I like too many – sometimes I like really broad, crisp nibs, and sometimes I like fine, flexible nibs. I want them all! Do you have a dream nib?

One of my favorite kinds of nibs: the music nib. I think they look great, they write so wonderfully, and that flex…! I know. It’s supposed to be for music nibs. One can do nifty things with an object, even if it is isn’t the intended use of that object, right?

Maybe you’re not interested in flexible nibs. That’s okay. I can look past that and still like you. However, vintage pens offer much more than just flex nibs! You can also fine hard nibs as well, like this Pelikan below with a hard extra-fine – it’s precise and crisp, much like the modern Pilot PO nib. The best of both worlds, of course, is having one of each.

If you’re looking for a flexible nib in a modern or vintage pen, you probably see a lot of nibs described as soft, springy, or extra-flessible. Although these offer some line variation and snap back from pressure, they are not full flex nibs, so be careful with how much pressure you apply. They are a lot of fun though, and add a lot of expression to ones writing!

It’s interesting to compare vintage flex nibs to modern flex nibs. My preferred, unmodified modern flexible nib is the OMAS extra flessible nib (in this case, an extra-fine). The OMAS nib is a 14KT gold nib, just like the nib on the Waterman 94 I compared it with in the writing sample below. The vintage nib felt softer, bounced back faster, had better feedback (i.e., it let me know when I was pushing it far enough), and …